The debt of gratitude: Dissociating gratitude and indebtedness

We investigated the relationship between the emotional states of gratitude and indebtedness in two studies. Although many have suggested that these affects are essentially equivalent, we submit that they are distinct emotional states. Following Heider (1958), we propose that with increasing expectat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCognition and emotion Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 217 - 241
Main Authors Watkins, Philip, Scheer, Jason, Ovnicek, Melinda, Kolts, Russell
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hove Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.2006
Psychology Press
Subjects
Affectivity. Emotion
Biological and medical sciences
Emotional states
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gratitude
Indebtedness
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Human
Affect affectivity
Social interaction
Cognition
Emotion emotionality
Expectation
Interpersonal relation
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Summary:We investigated the relationship between the emotional states of gratitude and indebtedness in two studies. Although many have suggested that these affects are essentially equivalent, we submit that they are distinct emotional states. Following Heider (1958), we propose that with increasing expectations of return communicated with a gift by a benefactor, indebtedness should increase but gratitude should decrease. The results of two vignette studies supported this hypothesis, and patterns of thought/action tendencies showed these states to be distinct. In addition, we found that with increasing expectations communicated by a benefactor, beneficiaries reported that they would be less likely to help the benefactor in the future. Taken together, we argue that the debt of gratitude is internally generated, and is not analogous to an economic form of indebtedness.
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ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/02699930500172291